Pakistan's Supreme Court has cleared the backlog of almost all death penalty appeals filed before the end of 2025, Chief Justice Yahya Afridi announced on Thursday during the National Conference on Prison Reforms in Islamabad. The development is part of broader efforts to improve the country's criminal justice system, which has long been plagued by delays contributing to prison overcrowding and prolonged incarceration.
Backlog Cleared by June 2026
Justice Afridi stated that the court had decided 606 death appeals by June 30, 2026, including cases filed as far back as 2015. All appeals filed before December 31, 2025, have been decided, barring three cases scheduled for hearing on Monday and Tuesday. Between January 1 and June 30, 2026, 70 new death appeals were filed, of which 52 have already been decided, leaving only about 20 pending.
Personal Motivation from a Condemned Inmate
The chief justice revealed that the issue became a personal priority after a visit to the central jail in Dera Ismail Khan shortly after assuming office. He recalled meeting a death row inmate who, when asked about his needs for clean drinking water, food, and healthcare, replied: 'Sir, I do not need food, water to drink or health care. Please ensure that my death appeal pending in the court since 2017 is decided.' Justice Afridi described the moment as 'one human being asking the other whether the system responsible for his life had remembered him at all or had forgotten about him.'
Call for Systemic Reforms
While describing the progress on death appeals as 'very encouraging, but not enough,' Justice Afridi acknowledged that the judiciary still has 'a long journey to go.' He admitted that existing mechanisms such as judicial jail inspections and criminal justice coordination committees have 'not produced the outcome aligning with the urgency of the problem.' He stressed that 'reform begins with honesty' and called for greater cooperation between the judiciary, provincial governments, and other institutions responsible for prison administration, noting that prisons are a provincial subject under Pakistan's Constitution. The conference was attended by the chief ministers of all four provinces.
